I heard today about 'a friend' who had been driving uninsured as the insurance company had cancelled his car insurance. They took the renewal money in June but nine days later refunded it to his credit card and cancelled the insurance. They wrote to him with cancellation documents, didn't email him. He didn't notice the refund on his credit card and the cancellation documents never arrived.
Faced with a broken windscreen he called autoglass who called him back to say that the insurance policy had been cancelled.
Elephant conceded it was their fault to have cancelled the insurance but it was now too late to reinstate it back to the cancellation date and he has to take out new insurance.
What would you do if you were 'my friend'?
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Depends on why it was cancelled I guess ...
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RTA insurance cannot be backdated, no matter who was at fault. Had it gone to caught, he would still have been guilty of driving without insurance. If there was an error, then a letter from the insurance company can reduce the penalties to close to nothing.
Had there been no incident, then the recommendation would have been to move on and let it go. Perhaps, if the insurer was in the wrong, with some discount or similar in consideration.
What he's after I presume is his windscreen replaced.
You say they sent cancellation documents. It depends what you mean by that. It also depends on why they cancelled his insurance. It also depends on whether he actually didn't receive them or for some reason doesn't 'remember' receiving them.
You say that Elephant conceded (an emotive term) that it was their fault. What do you, or they mean by 'fault'? And what was their motivation in cancelling?
Realistically if what you say is correct they followed the right process and thus he wasn't insured. So a begging letter is probably the way.
I would say that as he doesn't remember getting the documents and he didn't notice a refund on his credit card, he's lucky something more serious didn't happen and he'd be better to pay a little more attention in future.
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caught?? court!!
b***** auto correct.
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>> caught?? court!!
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>> b***** auto correct.
actually, wasn't a bad substitution - almost a pun.
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>> caught?? court!!
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>> b***** auto correct.
As you are aware, some of us admit to our little errors...
;-)
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Mmmm, but I think it unlikely they I would type "caught" instead of "court".
Now, typing cort, or something like that, even crtuo, that's could happen. I;m a great speller but a truly s***ty typist.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 13 Oct 17 at 13:47
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>>What would you do if you were 'my friend?
Drink a lot.
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>> What would you do if you were 'my friend'?
Get them to cover the cost of the screen, then find another insurance company.
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>> >> What would you do if you were 'my friend'?
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>> Get them to cover the cost of the screen, then find another insurance company.
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That'd be fair enough I'd say.
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Why did they cancel and refund it? Clerical error on their part.
In the end, after a lot of flirting and cajoling on his part, they agreed to reinstate my friend's policy with immediate effect, and to provide an indemnity letter covering any incident on all dates between the day the policy was terminated in error and today. Interesting, Mark, that you say that any offence would still have been court in caught.
Incidentally that means they also cover the glass, but really the sort of person who doesn't notice £500 refunded to his credit card can probably afford a windscreen and that was very much an incidental part of the issue.
Oh yes, and he hasn't been charged for four months' insurance.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Fri 13 Oct 17 at 13:21
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>>Mark, that you say that any offence would still have been court in caught.
I have seen it be bitterly unfair, especially in front of an idiot magistrate. The principle is fine, one cannot permit backdated insurance, but still.....
Tell him not to lose the letter. For all he knows he's been caught on an ANPR camera somewhere and it could help. Was I him I'd probably carry a photocopy for a week or two.
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Good result, but I though the DVLA did a comparison for registered cars on their database and insurance and if this is the case then will a fixed penalty notice be winging its way to the "friend"?
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>> Good result, but I though the DVLA did a comparison for registered cars on their
>> database and insurance and if this is the case then will a fixed penalty notice
>> be winging its way to the "friend"?
Routinely, no they don't only when stuff changes. So if insurance was valid when the car was taxed, thats a tick till the next time the tax comes up. However, the old bills ANPR should have bleeped if he passed a cop car so equipped, and they would have wanted a quick word.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 13 Oct 17 at 14:11
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Might have had is car away on a low loader as well :(
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>> Might have had is car away on a low loader as well :(
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and then scrapped in about 5 days if he had been away from home for more than a week when the letter was delivered!
About 5 years ago I sold an old untaxed car to a 'motor trader' who collected it on a Friday. I missed the Post Office on Saturday morning, and then posted the V5 slip on the Monday as I wanted proof of posting. On the following Tuesday / Wednesday I received a letter at my address saying the car had been seized from an street address (cul de sac) about 5 miles away on the Saturday am and the car would be destroyed in (I think) 2 days if not claimed with a valid cert of insurance!
Never heard anything further. I expected a visit from the trader - but nothing.
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Back in the seventies I went six months without insurance. I insured through the AA and set up a direct debit for twelve monthly installments, thinking no more about it. That was when bank statements were three monthly and when one eventually arrived I was surprised to find I had more money in the account than I thought. Thinking I'd made an error somewhere I forgot all about it until the next statement arrived and my balance had grown even more. This time I went through it and discovered the AA had taken the first payment but no more. There had been a slip up somewhere along the line and the bank had rejected the AA's request for further debits, causing the AA to cancel my insurance, which they only told me when I phoned up to query. I was a bit miffed that they hadn't written to tell me, which they admitted was their error. They re-instated the policy immediatly on the understanding that a cheque for the balance would go in the post straight away, but if anything had happened while I had been driving round uninsured the doo dah would have hit the fan and smothered me.
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Driving uninsured - Hard Cheese
